Bard 10/ red dragon disciple 10/ pale master 20
This player character build (bard 10/ red dragon disciple 10/ pale master 20) is designed to be highly defensive, gaining bonuses to armor class, as well as several immunities, from the two prestige classes. This allows an option to fight without armor and shield (and the associated arcane spell failure), depending on the situation. For offense, this build primarily relies on devastating criticals, which are threatened on 45% of attacks (assuming a keen weapon) and whose saving throw DC is 43. There is also the option to toss a hellball, particularly against those immune to critical hits. Basics Race: human Abilities: (final scores in parentheses) * Strength: 15 (36) * Dexterity: 14 * Constitution: 14 (16) * Wisdom: 10 * Intelligence: 10 (12) * Charisma: 14 (16) Alignment: any non-lawful, non-good Level progression Classes by character level * 1–8: bard * 9–18: red dragon disciple * 19–38: pale master * 39–40: bard Ability increases * All ability increases are in strength. General feats by character level * 1: weapon proficiency (martial) * 1: curse song * 3: weapon focus: rapier * 6: combat casting * 9: power attack * 12: improved critical: rapier * 15: cleave * 18: great cleave * 21: epic weapon focus: rapier * 24: overwhelming critical: rapier * 27: devastating critical: rapier * 30: armor skin * 33: great strength I * 36: great strength II * 39: great strength III Pale master epic bonus feats by character level (pale master level in parentheses) * 31 (13):improved combat casting * 34 (16): epic spell: hellball * 37 (19): epic spell: epic warding Skills This build receives 178 skill points over its 40 levels. The skill ranks required by this build are the following. * lore 8 (at level 8 to gain red dragon disciple) The other skills most important for this build are the following. Ranks are listed first, with the score modified by the relevant ability in parentheses. * 43 (46) concentration * 12 (15) perform skill for only bard * 43 (44) spellcraft * 40 (42) tumble class skill for only bard This leaves 32 unused skill points. Recommended skills are discipline, taunt, and use magic device. Stats Attack bonus In the absence of magical enhancements, whether from items or spells, this character's attack bonus (AB) when wielding a (mundane) rapier is composed of the following elements at level 40. * 24: base attack bonus * +13: strength modifier * +3: feats (epic and regular weapon focus) 40 AB, for attacks per round of +40/+35/+30. This can be self-buffed to +42/+37/+32 via bard song. If the character is permitted a rapier with a +5 enhancement bonus and gear that provides a +12 bonus to strength (increasing the strength modifier by 6), the attacks per round become +53/+48/+43 when bard song is used. If the character is additionally permitted to reach the +20 attack bonus cap and acquires haste, the attacks per round become +66/+61/+56/+66 Armor class In the absence of magical enhancements, whether from items or spells, this character's armor class (AC) when wearing (mundane) chainmail and a tower shield is composed of the following elements at level 40. * 10: base AC * +5: chainmail base AC * +3: tower shield base AC * +2: dexterity modifier * +2: armor skin * +8: tumble * +4: red dragon disciple AC bonus * +12: pale master AC bonus 46 AC with armor and shield, 38 without If the character is permitted items with a +5 bonus in each of the five categories (armor, deflection, dodge, natural, and shield) as well as a +4 bonus to dexterity, the preferred armor becomes chain shirt and the AC total becomes 72 armored, 60 unarmored. If the character is instead permitted a +20 bonus in each category and a +12 bonus to dexterity, the preferred armor becomes padded armor and the AC total becomes 148 armored, 124 unarmored. Recommended spells (by spell level) * Level 4: war cry, either cure critical wounds or dismissal * Level 3: greater magic weapon (especially for low-magic modules), wounding whispers, 2 others * Level 2: ability buffs (e.g. bull's strength) in a low-magic module, otherwise clarity, ghostly visage, see invisibility, 1 other * Level 1: Balagarn's iron horn (for use against enemy casters), 3 others * Level 0: (all are available) Notes * A scimitar could replace the rapier in this build, with similar results. * The selected spells should be based on whether this character is buffing up before fights or casting spells in battle. * If this character is not planning to cast in battle, the combat casting feat may be traded for another feat of choice (such as lingering song or toughness), while the improved combat casting feat would then become epic energy resistance (any, but fire would be redundant), which is the only other choice available for the epic bonus at pale master level 13. Category:Character builds